


Unseen Labyrinth

by StarWarsSyl



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Attachment does not equal love in this fic, Bioweapons, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Gen, Heavy Angst, Human Experimentation, Jedi Culture Respected, Nightmares, Survival, Torture, mild horror themes, mystery disease
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-02-15 12:50:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13031481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWarsSyl/pseuds/StarWarsSyl
Summary: A year before the events of Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan and Anakin try one last time to find Jenna Zan Arbor. Everything, predictably, goes to pieces, and the evil scientist who once tortured Qui-Gon becomes the least of their fears.





	1. Chapter 1

 

“ _Force fripping damn it!_ ”

“ _Language,_ Anakin!” Obi-Wan Kenobi snapped.

His eighteen-year-old Padawan rolled his eyes, the disrespect concealed by the inconsistent light thrown by two glowrods and twin lightsabers, both blue, hacking through  _dozens_ of boot-sized attackers. “Why do you always get us into stuff like this? Their claws are  _as long_ as the rest of them!”

Obi-Wan shied out of the way of a truly impressive leap for his face, the gleaming claws missing his nose by an inch.

“They didn ’t seem hostile  _ before _ .”

“What? You going to blame  _ me  _ for this?”

“No.” Why did Obi-Wan sound  _ insulted _ ? “I was going to suggest we might be near their nesting ground.”

_ Oh. _

At least his Master wasn’t blaming him, for once.

That was fine. He could find  _ plenty  _ of ways to blame  _ Obi-Wan  _ for the kark they’d landed in.

Anakin sliced another furry monster in half, retreating until his back almost pressed against Obi-Wan’s. “Want to tell me why the Temple Archives failed to  _ mention  _ these things?”

“You’re joking, right? This is the  _ Expansion Region.  _ We don’t know a  _ fraction  _ of what lies out here!”

Anakin growled as he muttered, “So what you’re  _ saying  _ is that we  _ should have parked closer  _ so we could ask the locals about  _ hazards  _ to avoid.”

Obi-Wan nearly stepped on him to avoid a raging nonsentient.

Anakin put a little distance between them again, missing the time  _ before  _ every mission turned into a colossal argument.

Missed the time when he and Obi-Wan  _ weren’t _ little more than glorified antagonists.

“We could either  _ walk in the front door,  _ or work our way around the back. We  _ landed  _ at the  _ closest  _ option for the latter choice!”

“You keep  _ saying  _ that,” Anakin grumbled, ducking under the leap of an attacker just in time to see Obi-Wan’s blade whip up without his Master once looking back, bisecting the creature. “Just admit you didn’t think it would take us  _ two days  _ to get through this hell— and  _ we’re not there yet _ !”

“Alright—  _ fine!  _ I didn’t!”

Anakin’s scowl turned just a bit smug before he felt more than saw Obi-Wan’s flinch of pain as a claw tore through his right bicep.

It wouldn’t make  _ that  _ mistake twice; it died at his Master’s blade before it touched the ground again.

That seemed to be the stick to break the eopie’s back, the rest of the living attackers fleeing into the abandoned mining tunnels.

_ I don’t see how the miners got anything done with those things down here. And why would even someone as crazy as Zan Arbor want to put a lab down here?  _ Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt again. “How bad is it?”

“Not very,” Obi-Wan replied, tone dismissive. “Let’s go.”

Anakin looked pointedly at the blood seeping through the tunic’s sleeve. “Not until we’ve taken care of that. You don’t want it to get infected, do you?” He slung his pack off his back and pulled out the medkit.

“I can use the Force to—”

But Anakin was already pulling apart the torn sleeve, so Obi-Wan gave up.

The cut ran a good five inches long down the outside of Obi-Wan’s arm, deep enough to be ugly, not deep enough to require stitching. In the Force, Anakin could feel Obi-Wan wince as he cleaned it out, though his Master remained perfectly still.

As Anakin rummaged in the bag for a bandage, Obi-Wan twisted to inspect the slice himself. “What is that?”

“A cut,” Anakin returned, tone dry. “A very nice one too. Maybe you should spend more time in lightsaber practic—”

“No, smartmouth. The black...  _ stuff... _ inside the cut.”

_ Black stuff? What black stuff? _

Anakin turned to look and bit back a startled curse.

Where a moment ago there had been torn but clean muscle, now something dark churned in the wound. It was...  _ what the kriff?  _ Bubbling? Obi-Wan held a glowrod close, providing better light.

“Does it hurt?” Anakin demanded as he cleaned the cut out  _ again. _

Obi-Wan watched, a grimace on his face. “When you  _ touch _ it,  _ yes. _ ” As Anakin pulled the sterile rag away, the older Jedi shook his head. “That doesn’t appear to be working.”

Anakin stared at the cut. It might not have black fluid in it anymore, but the muscles appeared to have been the source of it. The edges looked sick, a dark brown that neared black, and disturbing streaks marked his skin leading away from the wound.

“Poison?” Anakin asked, trying to still the rush of fear that simmered underneath what he allowed himself to feel. It would break through if it had the chance. He  _ had  _ to hold it back.

If he denied it, it wasn’t there and didn’t count, right? If he blocked it out? If it lurked in his heart but he didn’t think about it?

Obi-Wan sighed, appearing mildly annoyed more than concerned. “I did well with toxin training, and I’ve been poisoned in the field a few times from different sources. My body is not responding as if to a poison.”

Anakin eyed the wound that was rapidly filling up with the sick, thick black fluid again. Once it had filled the small canyon, it began to slowly bubble. “Ah... better do a cleansing trance anyway. This is as good a place as any to spend the night.”

“I suppose that would be wise,” Obi-Wan grumbled.

Not that night had any real meaning beneath the surface of a planet. They ’d left the areas where light from the system’s sun could reach long ago. Somehow, Anakin’s heart felt the chill as much as his skin felt it in the air.

They’d better _catch_ Zan Arbor this time, if it _really was_ her. Rumors of a secret lab, a blond scientist, and a missing Jedi didn’t look _good._

_At least we almost definitely still have the element of surprise._

“I’ll take first watch,” Anakin offered, fully planning on insisting if his Master decided to argue.

Obi-Wan didn’t.

Anakin watched as his Master sent himself into a deep healing and detoxifying trance-like sleep. As soon as he was sure Obi-Wan was out, he carefully moved the arm so he could keep an eye on the injury.

Minutes slid by, a handful, then a dozen, then a couple dozen...

Obi-Wan flinched in his sleep.

Anakin jerked his attention from their surroundings to his Master, but the older Jedi lay still once more.

An hour later, Obi-Wan jerked again. Anakin could see his eyes roving beneath the closed lids.

Hours continued to pass, and Obi-Wan seemed agitated.

At least the wound had stopped filling up with black liquid. Now it just sat there...

When Anakin simply couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, he decided to wake Obi-Wan up. His Master was likely to be upset; Anakin had allowed him to sleep far beyond the time he’d set for guard change.

If it weren’t for those little creatures and the possibility of a facility belonging to Zan Arbor being down here, Anakin would have been tempted to just let Obi-Wan keep sleeping.

The fact that Obi-Wan wasn’t annoyed when Anakin woke him was almost as disturbing as the strange behavior of the wound. Anakin didn’t have much time to think about it, though, as he was asleep almost before he hit the floor.

 

~ ~ ~

 

Anakin could see Obi-Wan, standing with his back to him, a few meters in front of him and to his right, arms held out and down in 45-degree angles. Obi-Wan’s hands were empty and open, fingers splayed. His head was tilted back almost as far as it could go without bending his back, and pressed up underneath his jaw was a lightsaber.

Short, thick, silver with black ridges and a partial hood over the emitter...

_ I know that lightsaber. _

Anakin had built it.

He tried to see who was holding it, but that individual seemed fuzzy, indistinct... all except for the eyes. They were his own eyes. Somehow he was standing here, but also blatantly threatening his Master there at the same time.

How—?

That aside, what was that other Anakin thinking?

He started towards them. There were a lot of questions he wanted answered. Foremost  _ wasn’t _ why there were two of him.

“I failed you, Anakin,” Obi-Wan murmured. The sorrow in his voice shattered every frustration Anakin held against him. Failed? No.

_ I’m the one failing _ you _ . I’m the one who just can’t seem to be the Jedi I’m supposed to— _

The other Anakin was really threatening Obi-Wan. It wasn’t an act to deceive an enemy. He could see it in the eyes, hear it in Obi-Wan’s voice. So why wasn’t his Master pulling away? He wasn’t cornered. He was making no attempt to talk him down, not asking  _ what are you doing  _ or  _ why... _

And he was making no effort to take his own lightsaber from his belt.

Anakin broke into a sprint. “What are you—”

The other Anakin ignited his blade.

Obi-Wan ’s reflexive, choked gasp as the blade stabbed up through his head tore Anakin’s guts out. His other self disappeared, the saber with him, as Obi-Wan’s knees buckled and he fell backwards.

Anakin caught him.

His Master weighed so little, like he’d been overworked for too long, his frame wasted by trial and sleepless nights of responsibility and worry. His body convulsed as his subconscious struggled to keep its hold on life. The fact he was alive when Anakin caught him didn’t make logical sense.

Anakin was drowning in horror and dismay. He could feel his saber’s weight at his belt.

There was blood on the hilt, and more on his hands, even though he’d been too afraid to touch his Master’s head.

_ I did this to him.  _ It didn’t matter how that could be. It was so.

_ “I failed you, Anakin.” _

“No,” he pleaded, tears rising, choking his voice and blurring his vision. “Don’t die, please—  _ please _ !” His voice rose in pitch and panic. “Someone help!”

He could feel the dark, warm fluid, feel Obi-Wan’s jerking subside so quickly it was almost a cliff’s drop-off...

Completely still, completely limp, completely gone. The struggling candle blown out by a small, callous breath; the blue eyes staring up past Anakin’s head, seeing nothing.

Anakin felt a terrible hole tear through the middle of his own soul, one that would never heal, never stop hurting; could feel a guilt and bewilderment and grief far beyond any he’d ever felt in his life, even when Qui-Gon Jinn had died—

Tears fell on his Master’s body as he pulled it close to him and bowed his head.

What had he done?  
Someone was shaking his shoulder, trying to speak to him, but Anakin couldn’t care.

His world had shattered, he had nothing left—

_ And it’s my fault. _

 

~ ~ ~

 

Anakin’s eyelids flew open and he started, gasping for air, only to see Obi-Wan crouched beside him.

“It’s time to move,” his Master offered, apologetic, “if we want to reach that lab sooner than later. I prefer sooner. I’ve already fussed with the cut; we can go as soon as you’re on your feet.”

Anakin struggled to reorient himself even as Obi-Wan rose and shouldered his pack.

The Padawan felt shaken, and reached up to wipe his face with his hand. He expected to find it wet.

It wasn’t.

No tears.

The dream had felt so  _ real,  _ so solid...

As he grabbed his own pack and followed Obi-Wan down the tunnel, he carefully built a room in his mind to hide the experience, walls to imprison it, a door without a handle so he could move on as though it had never happened.

He wasn’t going to think about it.

It had been the result of his worry over Obi-Wan; it meant nothing.

It was just a dream.

Just his subconscious dragging monsters up to torment him. Nothing to worry about. Everything was going to be alright.

_ But what if... _

_ No. It’s not a premonition _ , he sternly told himself.  _ Left, right. Left, right. Left, right. Plan. Plan our mission, plan our return.  _ “How’s the arm?”  
“It’s turned an odd greenish color, and I don’t like the way the wound smells. There hasn’t been enough time for the flesh to actually be decaying.”

“I’m hearing a  _ but  _ in there,” Anakin prompted, feeling cold deep in his gut.

Obi-Wan didn’t even glance over at him, just kept walking. “But nothing. We’ll just have to see what it does.”

 

* * *

 

Reaching their destination wasn’t nearly as satisfactory as Anakin had been hoping.

Down the long tunnel there was a gradual shift from the natural to the stark.

The walls were not covered in white paneling—  _ yet,  _ Anakin thought— but grating covered the stone floor and lights lined the ceiling. 

_ If there is a door, it’ll be around the next bend. _

Obi-Wan and Anakin peered at the grated floor, then pulled back around the corner into the safety of the darker tunnels.

“I don’t like this,” Anakin growled in a whisper. “Surely she has surveillance.”

Obi-Wan frowned. “Anakin, if I were in charge of this place, surveillance would have detected us quite a bit before now. If we try to backtrack, it’ll take us at least a full day before we reach a side-tunnel that might lead us in this direction, and we’ll have no guarantee those approaches won’t be guarded either. If we’ve been spotted, we don’t have that kind of time.”

Kark, Obi-Wan was right.

“So we’ll just head in as quietly as possible?” Anakin grimaced.

“Can you think of another plan?”  
No...

But that didn’t mean he liked this one.

This one had far too many different options for failure.

He tapped his lightsaber. “I’m ready, Master.”

“No violence unless we absolutely must,” Obi-Wan replied with a patient  _ look.  _ “We’re not supposed to be the badguys, here.”

“But Zan Arbor—”

“Will have numerous assistants around her, most likely, if for nothing else to throw in an enemy’s way so she can escape.”

_ If anyone is knowingly helping her, they deserve to die just as much as she does. _

But of course, Anakin couldn’t say that out loud.

_ “I failed you, Anakin.”  _ The words from his dream echoed in Anakin’s ears as he put away his glowstick and stepped out after Obi-Wan to begin their cautious walk down the bright hallway.

_ No, no, no. I don’t have time for this right now. _

So he did what he’d always done with his most fear-inducing questions.

He hid behind action.

Anakin moved so he could speak directly into his Master’s ear. “I sense a concentration of people ahead. They’re afraid.”

“Of us?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Maybe...”

But Anakin had the distinct impression they weren’t the cause.

As the Jedi passed under the lights and the floor turned to grating, Anakin thought he felt something else, too... but just couldn’t figure out what...

The expression on Obi-Wan’s face proved he felt it too, and was also having trouble identifying it.

Despite Obi-Wan’s caution, Anakin’s hand strayed towards the hilt of his lightsaber as they neared the final corner.

Yes, violence might be a last resort, but the distance between first resort and last was often a heartbeat.

If—

A ray shield sprang up around them, encasing them in a cylinder reaching from floor to ceiling.

Then, even as Anakin’s danger-sense flared, every cell in his body lit on fire. He screamed, his head snapping back, his fingers forming claws.

Dimly, through crackling blue light, he could hear Obi-Wan cry out and saw him drop to his hands and knees, eyes wide, body shuddering under the arcing electricity.

The assault ended and the shield lowered, but Anakin couldn ’t move, all the commands in his brain being fried before reaching his limbs.

There were people out there. He couldn’t focus well enough—

Staffs with strong magnets unhooked the lightsabers from their belts, and once again the shield buzzed into place.

The electricity surged and Obi-Wan screamed. He collapsed with a jerk onto his side, one hand clawing for purchase against the grating, and then every muscle relaxed with a violence all its own, his head clunking to the floor.

Anakin could feel the pop in the Force as Obi-Wan was thrown into the realm of unconsciousness. The chaotic bands of light continued to caress the still form, but Obi-Wan Kenobi felt none of it.

Anakin grit his teeth, but groans escaped him anyway.

He had to hold out.

The people outside would have to lower the shield to move the Jedi to somewhere more secure. There would be an opportunity. He just had to—

His knees buckled, his brain shut down, and he fell into nothingness.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Anakin opened his eyes to find himself lying on his side, somewhat sprawled as if he ’d been thrown, his hands in cuffs that zapped him hard when he tried to pull them apart.

He reached into the Force to try to unlock them, but it didn’t work.

Jedi-proof binders.

Obi-Wan lay beside him, still unconscious, his hands also bound.

Anakin looked around to find the room to be small, the door a simple ray-shield. The walls and ceiling were also protected by ray shields close to their surfaces.

_ Just what did you think we could do to the walls without our sabers? _

It wasn’t good their opponents had overestimated the Jedi’s abilities.

It meant security would be really tight.

“Ah. You’re awake.”  
The voice came from an unseen comm somewhere up high. Anakin glanced around for it instinctively, but couldn’t find it.

His head buzzed, and he felt sore and exhausted, but other than that, he was fine.

He hated electricity, though.

_ Wait. That voice was male. Definitely not Zan Arbor.  _ “Who are you?” Anakin asked.

“Not who you’re looking for,” their jailer returned, sounding petulant. “I knew she’d do it. She threatened she would, and she  _ did.  _ It’s a good thing I upgraded my security to defend me against Jedi, or you might have destroyed my laboratory before you realized you had the wrong target.”

“What are you talking about?” Anakin asked, bewildered. He pushed himself to his knees and touched Obi-Wan ’s shoulder. Nothing happened. He reached out and pushed the hair that had fallen over his face back. “Hey. You can wake up any time now.”

But Knight Kenobi was solidly out.

Anakin sighed. He smacked Obi-Wan lightly on the cheek. “I need you awake—”

Either the blow or the little explosion in the Force accompanying it broke through to Obi-Wan. He blinked, squinted, blinked several more times, groaned, and tried to sit up by pushing one hand only against the floor.

He yelped as the stun cuffs blasted him, like they had his apprentice.

“What am I talking about?” the voice from above raved. His tone turned decidedly injured. “I won the contract over Zan Arbor. She got skeeved off about the whole thing and threatened to leave a trail bringing the Jedi looking for her to me. I knew she would do it, too. But I hoped she  _ wouldn’t _ , and now you’re here to destroy all my work—”

Obi-Wan sat up, squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head, all of it gingerly. “This is not Zan Arbor’s lab?”

“No. That’s what I said— and I knew you wouldn’t believe me. It’s why I had to install security measures. Officials never listen. They destroy, and then they try to refund once they discover their mistake. My research has taken years. It’s not refundable! Governments don’t understand—”

“What contract?” Anakin growled.

They’d been sent on a wild bantha chase by the woman they were trying to hunt down, shocked unconscious, and now locked in what was, for all intents and purposes, a fancy cage while the scientist they were after  _ continued  _ to roam the galaxy free.

Anakin wasn’t very... happy.

“The contract to design a microorganism that could kill Jedi.”  
Anakin had been ready to just leave this man to his paranoia and move on with the hunt for Zan Arbor, but now cold fury flooded his system. “What?”  
“I could see how you two wouldn’t appreciate it,” the scientist conceded, “but there are several interested parties out there who would pay large sums for something that could kill Jedi without being detectable or traceable.”

“Since we evidently have the wrong place,” Obi-Wan offered, tone cordial, throwing Anakin a hushing glance, “will you let us go now, so we can continue our hunt for Zan Arbor? We would like to find her as soon as possible.”  
“And I’d like you to find her, in all honesty. She’s a kowakian monkey lizard. Calls herself a scientist. Bah. Steals most of her supposed work, most likely! I don’t think she has the brains to—”

Pain bloomed in Anakin’s mind again, catching him completely off guard. He cried out, heard Obi-Wan’s torn groans.

Blue electricity danced across the floor, wrapping itself around the Jedi.

This time it only lasted seconds before vanishing.

“Oh, dear. Well, it is interesting. Apparently my sources were right when they said Jedi are susceptible to strong jolts.”

Anakin felt anger swirling inside.

Obi-Wan was gasping for air, hands planted close together on the floor, his eyes glazed.

“I thought we wanted the same thing,” Anakin snapped, a little too forcefully to be considered diplomatic. “You want us to go after Zan Arbor, and that’s where we want to be.”

“Oh, dear,” the scientist said again. “But this is a bit distressing. You see, the... party funding my research here has gone to great lengths to keep the Jedi from finding out, and they pay me quite well, and they let me spend all my time steeped in science. I can’t exactly just let you go. It’s so very unfortunate Zan Arbor had to do this. So petty. Very unprofessional.”

This time, Anakin sensed it coming just before it hit.

It didn’t make the electricity less terrible, but this time he was braced so no sound escaped him as his body jerked. The thrashing was beyond his control.

Apparently Obi-Wan had felt it coming too, and had likewise braced. His quivering gasps for air, sometimes close together and other times agonizing seconds apart, were somehow worse than his cries of pain had been.

When the racking blue light receded, Obi-Wan sank to the floor, his gaze fixed, as though he were just barely clinging to consciousness.

The load on the two had been the same... so why was it doing this to him?

Anakin was angry, more than anything else. His fingers and toes were a bit numb, but when the zapping stopped, the pain faded.

He moved closer to his Master, wondering how he could fend off the next wave, if there was one.

_ Probably will be.  _ He was coming to hate that voice in the ceiling.

If Obi-Wan wasn’t struggling so much, what would his Master be doing?

_ Trying to get information. _

_Threats and violence won’t get you as much as trying to draw him out. He’s a scientist. He wants to share his knowledge. Convince him to boast about his discoveries._

Yeah. That ’s what Obi-Wan would tell him.

If he was clever enough, maybe he could keep Obi-Wan from being shocked again until the man had recovered a bit.

“Kill Jedi?” Anakin scoffed. “We know this facility is used to study the big lizards. Dokka, you call them, right? A dokka is no match for a Jedi, even on a bad day.”

The voice snorted a laugh. “Use the  _ dokka  _ to kill Jedi? Why does everyone think we’re after the dokka? I just want the eggs.”

“The eggs don’t even have the chemicals the adults have,” Anakin shot back.  _ Come on, take the bait, take the bait.  _ “I hear they’re good eating.”

“The eggs will eat  _ you, _ ” the scientist replied, sounding happy. “And I’ve already killed one Jedi. Your disbelief is meaningless.”

Anakin’s heart froze. The missing Master Shazisa? “I don’t believe you.”

“She was too snoopy for her own good, but it gave me a chance to test my theory.”

“You’re delusional.” Maybe he was being too confrontational, but he was running out of patience, and wasn’t at all sure how much longer he could maintain this little chat. Obi-Wan’s patience and cunning absolutely baffled him. How in worlds could he tolerate to do this so often so long?

Besides.

They were talking about the life of a Jedi, and Anakin didn’t like the other man’s casual tone.

Electricity struck again, and Anakin didn’t catch it ahead of time. That, and the disbelieving anguish in Obi-Wan’s eyes made him angry.

When he got out of here, Anakin was going to have a rather physical talk with this scientist. Negotiations might just become a little more... aggressive than originally planned.

As the blue fire faded away, Obi-Wan lay inert on the floor, panting quietly, his gaze vacant.

“What is it you want from us?” Anakin asked, struggling to keep the glare off his face.

_ Come on, just a little bit longer— _

“Knowledge, of course.” The scientist sounded surprised. “The value of knowledge surpasses that of everything. I have even heard that Jedi prize it above all else. So yes. We  _do_ want the same thing, Jedi.”

“We prize _helping people_ above—” Anakin got the distinct impression the other had grown bored with the conversation at hand. He knew just a split moment before it struck what was returning.

Obi-Wan thrashed on the floor, voiceless, only half conscious.

Anakin fought the blue streaking through his vision, fought the twitching in his arms and legs, fought to control the thoughts that were shattered and confused like a jumble of pieces to a puzzle.

The ray shield was down.

If only he could—

Blackness encroached on his vision.

It cleared only when the electricity ceased.

He found himself trapped in a transporting force-field, guided by two guards. Ahead of him two more guards marched, hauling Obi-Wan by his upper arms. His Master was limp, head hung, the tops of his boots dragging across the stone floor.

Anakin tried to sense the intricacies of the system that restrained him only to realize his mind couldn ’t quite function yet for detail work that fine.  He wasn ’ t going to be able to get out on his own. 

Obi-Wan was unbound.

Significantly less than half-conscious now, though.

Age must be getting to him more than he ’ d like to admit.

A  _lot_ more.

_Except... he_ _ ’s not even thirty-five yet. _

They reached a short hallway that contained two cells opposite one another. Anakin tried to reach out with his senses, but all that he could discover was meters of thick rock above, below, and on all sides.

Obi-Wan ’s guards threw him into one cell, a bit out of sync, unintentionally turning him to face Anakin as he fell.

The Padawan felt surprised by the emptiness he saw in his Master’s eyes.

Even more surprised by the fall. Obi-Wan hit the stone floor without even an attempt to catch himself. After he struck, his spine arched in pain, but his gaze never left the ceiling and he slowly sank back.

A guard triggered what appeared to be a form of clear ray shield across the door, sealing Obi-Wan in.

Anakin scanned the minds of the three men who now surrounded him. None would be open to mental suggestion.

And it wasn’t just because Anakin was experiencing trouble focusing.

Anakin found himself transferred from his floating stasis field to that of the cell across from Obi-Wan. The ray shield activated, and then his restriction field disappeared, dropping Anakin flat on his face. Unable to stop his momentum, he crashed into the floor.

The guards walked back to the T intersection, and two just kept going. The third stood watch, settling in as though he expected to be there for the long haul, turned towards the hallway instead of the miniature cell bay.

Was he more concerned about people trying to get  _ to  _ the Jedi than the Jedi somehow getting  _ out _ ?

_ Not that he has to be too worried about  _ that _ . _

The paranoia and security might be almost humorously extravagant, but it certainly did the job.

They weren’t going anywhere.

Hauling himself to his feet, Anakin scowled. Dropping him on his face was a bit much, even for the paranoid. Were these guys so desperate for fun that this was the best they could come up with? He turned to ask Obi-Wan about it but felt a jolt of concern as he saw his Master hadn’t moved a centimeter. His gaze, what Anakin could see of it, was still blank, and his mouth open. His breathing was more labored than it had been moments before, as if it was difficult to drag the air into his lungs.

“Master?” Anakin moved closer to his ray shield, glancing at the uninterested guard. “Master.”

Obi-Wan didn’t seem to have heard, and there wasn’t even a flicker of response in the Force.

Definitely worried now, Anakin pursued, “Master, are you alright?”

And then Obi-Wan moved.

His shoulder jerked toward the ceiling and his eyes widened as his inhale broke off half-way and refused to complete. His body flinched against the sudden deprivation of oxygen. He let out the air he’d already had and tried again.

With even less success.

Anakin couldn’t believe what his eyes and senses were telling him.

His Master was dying.

“ _ Hey _ !” he yelled at the guard. “Do something; he can’t breathe!”

The human turned with bored slowness, took one look at Anakin, glanced at Obi-Wan, and then scoffed in Anakin’s direction. “Oldest one in the book, Jedi. Too bad your mind tricks won’t work. Do you really think I’m stupid enough to go in there?”

Anakin began to panic. There was no way for him to get over there himself, and Obi-Wan was not setting the guard up. In fact, Anakin didn’t think he’d even heard the exchange, loud though it had been. His Master was fighting for air, fighting for life, and losing.

There wasn’t time to convince the guard.

Anakin reached deeply into the Force and gently lifted Obi-Wan off the cell floor, turning him over so he faced down, and gently lowered him.

Obi-Wan was just aware enough to land on his hands and knees. It took several minutes of coughing and dragging in long draughts of air before he’d recovered enough to slowly, stiffly maneuver himself to sit against a side wall, forearms braced almost vertically against his drawn-up knees. The expression on his face was one of shock.

“What was that?” Anakin demanded.

Obi-Wan didn’t answer. His head hung, and he didn’t even look at his Padawan. His head sank forward until his forehead pressed against his knees.

“Talk to me, Obi-Wan. What happened? What’s going on?”

His Master was too overwhelmed to reply. His tensed muscles suddenly relaxed and he slumped over onto his side, lying very still.

Afraid, Anakin reached into the Force to try to discover what was wrong and found...

Obi-Wan asleep.

Asleep?

That made no sense.

Something was really wrong, even if Anakin couldn ’t sense it. Probably had something to do with that wound.

Or maybe the scientist was already experimenting.

Anakin glanced at the guard who once again had his back to them, then pulled back from the ray shield. He sat against the wall opposite the one Obi-Wan had claimed so he could look across the hall at an angle to see his Master’s face.

_ He looks utterly drained. We have to get out of here. _

He had to put worry over Obi-Wan’s inexplicable brush with death and his equally bizarre slumber out of his mind. Anakin reached out with the Force to examine the locking mechanism of his cell.

He would just have to get them out of there. Maybe if he studied it enough...

 

* * *

 

Hours later, Anakin knew he could trip his lock whenever he wanted to. As far as he’d been able to tell, there was no real security on Obi-Wan’s— it could easily be opened from the outside.  
If that ended up  _ not  _ being the case, he could always open it using the Force like he would with his own, as long as he had time.

_ Now I have to come up with a plan. We need our lightsabers back. _

Jumping the guard shouldn’t be too difficult. The man had a blaster, set for stun, but it was a short distance from here to there, with not a lot of room to maneuver.

Anakin felt positive he was fast enough.

In fact, he should probably just open his door as quietly as possible, then pounce on the guard and stun him with his own weapon, then let Obi-Wan out. Then it would be time to find out just exactly  _ what  _ this scientist was up to, and  _ who  _ he was.

_ And I’m getting my lightsaber back _ , Anakin thought, just a bit savagely.

Their captor had no right to keep it from him. That weapon was his life.

Anakin wasn’t entirely sure how to keep from being caught by more ray shield traps like before....

Their best bet would be to remain undetected as long as possible. He hadn’t been able to find any form of surveillance in the cell block.

_ Doesn’t mean there _ isn’t  _ any, but... _

He felt fairly confident of the absence.

As far as the rest of the facility went, it would be naive to think there  _ weren’t  _ security cams.

_ The real question is, does Doctor Paranoid have people watching the feeds at all times? _

Anakin shrugged.

He could sit here planning for hours, or he could just  _ act.  _ It didn’t look like answers were going to come on their own any time soon.

Obi-Wan was struggling with something. The sooner Anakin got him out of here, the better.

And they couldn’t very well leave until they’d determined whether Master Shazisa had died here or not, what this lab was attempting to do and had put a stop to it, preferably with the guy in charge in custody.

Possibly with him dead.

Given all of those relevant facts, Anakin decided the best way to deal with this would be to find their mad host and take him hostage. That would give them a better chance of success.

Showtime.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Anakin gently shook Obi-Wan ’s shoulder, then glanced behind him. He had no idea when a guard change was supposed to happen.

It would be a while before their unconscious guard woke up, trapped in Anakin’s former cell, without his comlink.  _ He  _ wouldn’t be alerting anyone soon.

_ But the guard change... _

“Come on, Master,” he murmured, shaking the shoulder a bit harder.

Obi-Wan stirred, then opened his eyes and looked up into Anakin’s face, confused and groggy.

“We’ve got to move.”  
“What are we doing?” Obi-Wan asked, sounding garbled.

“Putting a stop to this Jedi killer. And then getting  _ out. _ ”

The padawan watched closely as his master pulled himself to his feet. The sleepiness drained away, leaving in its place the cold, grim expression he knew so well. “The guard?”

“Will be quiet for a while.”

“How much time do we have?”

Anakin shook his head. “No idea.”

“Do you know where our lightsabers are?”  
“Nope.”  
“Or the scientist?”

Anakin shrugged helplessly.

Obi-Wan made a wry face and a nod. “Alright. Let’s move.”

“Are you going to be able to do this?” Anakin asked. Obi-Wan  _looked_ fine  _now,_ but that didn ’t erase what had happened earlier. 

Obi-Wan stared at him. “What kind of a question is that? Of  _ course.  _ I  _ have  _ to.”

“You fell asleep,” Anakin retorted, narrowing his eyes. He was not going to let Obi-Wan just brush him off. Not this time.

His master didn’t seem to get the point. “So? I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Anakin felt unease building in his gut. Last  _ night _ ? This didn’t have to do with the scientist’s taste for electricity? “Why didn’t you?”

“Who says there  _ is  _ a why?” Obi-Wan asked, and Anakin hated the stubborn tone he used. “Is not sleeping a crime now? We need to get out of here. There isn’t time to worry about me now.”

Anakin glared at him. “We might have to  _ make  _ time. You nearly  _ died  _ before I turned you over. What was  _ that _ ? Bad night’s sleep too?”  
“I don’t know,” Obi-Wan admitted, suddenly sober.

That wasn ’t what Anakin had been hoping for. “What do you think it is?”

Obi-Wan’s gaze fell away and he glanced out the open door of his cell. “I don’t think I’m sick, and I’m not sensing any toxins or poisons in my system. Whatever it is isn’t affecting you. Let’s just get on with what we need to do.” Again the blue gaze flicked up to meet Anakin’s.

Anger choked Anakin, mingled with fear and— no, he was  _ not  _ going to let those tears be seen. He looked away. Why couldn’t Obi-Wan  _ listen  _ to him? “ _ I  _ take your death seriously,” he muttered, voice sullen.

He couldn’t let Obi-Wan see his fear, see his pain at the thought of losing him.

He’d get another lecture.

He didn’t think he could handle that right now.

He felt Obi-Wan’s gaze lock onto his face with more scrutiny now.

“I appreciate your care, Anakin.”

The padawan experienced shock at the quiet,  _ tender  _ voice and the reassuring sense Obi-Wan projected into the Force. 

“But there is nothing we can do  _now,_ so let ’s focus on getting out of here.”

Anakin glanced back at him and gave a mute nod, feeling a bit overwhelmed. _ I didn’t get the nonattachment lecture. Why didn’t I get the nonattachment lecture? _

Obi-Wan stepped into the hallway, asking, “Do you have a plan for finding our lightsabers?”

“Yep. Lookin ’ for them.”

Obi-Wan’s gaze hardened and his eyebrows rose. “And what if these hallways are equipped with those wonderful ray-then-electricity traps?”

Anakin winced. “We’ll just not attract attention.”

“In other words...” Obi-Wan shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, “you  _ don’t _ have a plan.”

Anakin glared. “I got myself out, knocked out the guard, and unlocked your cell, didn ’t I?”  
“But you didn’t know when the guard change happens or if our man is supposed to call in at certain intervals.”

True...

“We can’t outrun ray shields.” As he said it, a slight tightening of Obi-Wan’s Force-sense told Anakin too much.

_ He’s thinking about Qui-Gon. _

Anakin doused that thought in a hurry. Thinking about loss and death right now was a bad idea.

It was  _always_ a bad idea.

“And with a man this paranoid, the halls  _will_ be monitored in some way. I vote the ventilation shafts.”  
_Again?_ Anakin stifled the urge to roll his eyes. “Some day the bad guys will catch on and lace those things with traps.”

“That ’s the day the Jedi end. Come on, let’s go. Tell me you know where the nearest grating is?”

Anakin smiled, the gesture somewhere between innocent and smug. “Just to the right of your cell.”

It took but a moment to stand beneath it, staring up.

“How do you want it removed?” Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan’s eyebrow shot up. “How do you think, my padawan?”

_ Quietly. Of course. _ Anakin reached up in its direction.

Obi-Wan’s hand mirrored his, and Anakin could feel his master’s intent, his plan.

And he knew exactly how to fit in.

Using the Force, they disconnected the grating from the wall and lowered it to the floor, letting it land without noise.

Getting in would be trickier.

“Climb on my shoulders, and then you can help pull me up,” Obi-Wan decided.

Anakin eyed the narrow opening. “I won’t be able to turn around.”

“I meant with the Force, Anakin.”

“Why don’t we do it the other way around?”

“Because you have more raw power in the Force, and I’m tired.”

Stunned, Anakin turned wide eyes to his shorter master. “I... what?”  
“Let’s move before we’re discovered, yes?” Obi-Wan braced his feet and beckoned.

The shaft turned out to not be any more roomy than Anakin had anticipated. Grateful neither of them happened to be claustrophobic, he scooted forward until he thought Obi-Wan would have enough room, then focused on what lay behind him.

There was Obi-Wan... and here was the opening...

The older man jumped and caught the edge of the shaft. Because of the proximity to the ceiling, he couldn’t just haul himself in.

Anakin carefully pulled Obi-Wan up and forward. His concentration broke as Obi-Wan's head bumped into his rear.

“A little more room, Anakin?” Obi-Wan huffed.

Grinning, Anakin inched forward some more. If Obi-Wan could be grumpy, he couldn’t be too badly hurt, right?

A soft rasp told Anakin that Obi-Wan had called up the grating and replaced it, to try to disguise their exit path for as long as possible.

Anakin crawled forward, muffling the noise as much as he could.

_ He said I’m stronger. _

Anakin had felt like that for some time now, of course, but he’d never expected Obi-Wan to admit it. Or seem willing to  _ use  _ it to their advantage.

_ If I’m stronger and he’s willing to admit it, why is he holding me back? Always telling me to slow down?  _

_And if I’m stronger... doesn’t that mean I should already be knighted?_

Yes, it was exceedingly rare to see a padawan knighted in their teens, but he was more powerful than the average padawan, and he ’d worked hard.

How wrong would it be to break a few records?

Trying to remember the twists and turns they ’d taken, Anakin attempted to match their journey with something similar. Halfway between one turn and the next intersection, he heard a humming coming from somewhere. A hum Anakin was  _ familiar  _ with.

_ This place has a serious computing room. _

And a room with that kind of data should have a map of the facility.

He focused close on the echoes, and then tried his best to follow.

As he crawled, he waited for Obi-Wan to hiss a question as to whether he knew where he was going or not, but his master didn ’t make a peep.

It bothered Anakin.

Granted, Obi-Wan’s prodding was usually quite bothersome...

But the total absence didn’t feel right either.

Anakin located the computer room, and it didn’t even take long. It felt good, even though he had no need to say  _ told you so. _

Anakin floated the grate to the floor, and then dropped himself into the room, Obi-Wan following.

A gasp had Anakin spinning to face the corner he hadn’t been able to see from within the air duct.

A woman stood there, eyes wide, frozen in shock.

Anakin could sense Obi-Wan stiffen behind him.

_ I should knock her out, right? _

Was she one of the enemies, or one of the innocents Obi-Wan  _ claimed  _ were here?

_ Damn it, Obi-Wan, you make things so complicated. _

“Get out,” the woman whispered, catching him off guard. “While you still can:  _ get out. _ ”

Anakin didn’t sense threat behind the tone. “Why would you care?” he asked, wary.

“I heard the screams of the first Jedi. I’ve never seen you before, you’re crawling through the air ducts, and everyone here knows Miger’s captured two more Jedi today.

Obi-Wan’s tension relaxed a microscopic amount. “How many Jedi have come through here?”

“Just the woman before today. I don’t know her name. She was looking for something, but when she found out about us, she said she would rescue us. And then Miger caught her, which is exactly what he’ll do to you—  _ again _ — if you don’t get out. Whatever you did to escape, he’ll make sure you can’t a second time.”

Anakin grimaced. “We need a map.”

The dark-eyed woman turned to one of the computers and in moments had one up. “Here.”

Anakin moved to study it.

Apparently, Obi-Wan’s mind had gone somewhere completely different. “Why do you need rescuing?”

“We don’t have a seat in the Senate. Coredust Mining has owned Perigon almost since we were rediscovered. The jobs Perigon offered might have been dangerous, but at least they paid. Once the ore was all gone, Coredust up and left us with a broken planet and no one to turn to.”

Anakin’s lip curled.  _ Being owned by a corporation is almost as bad as being owned by the Hutts. _

“Things started getting bad, without offworld money coming in, and with Perigon’s resources near drained. Coredust’s methods killed our topsoil. Miger advertised he had jobs: cleaning the tunnels in use, charting the unused tunnels, electrical and plumbing maintenance— there was a long list, but only a few of us are working on the jobs that were touted, and none of us are allowed to leave. There’s no communications, nothing.”

Obi-Wan shifted on his feet, his sense in the Force clearly concerned. “How long have you been trapped here?”

“Seven planetary months.”

“And your families?” Obi-Wan prodded.  
The woman ran a hand over her black hair. “One of the requirements was that the workers be single. It was weird, but we Perigonians are getting desperate.”

“But  _ still _ .” Anakin glanced up from memorizing the facility’s layout. “Siblings? Friends? A—”

“I don’t know how he’s keeping it quiet,” she interrupted. “I just know we can’t get out or contact anyone. And people are  _ dying  _ down here.”

“Is he paying you?” Obi-Wan’s brow furrowed.

“Yes. But other than the food kiosks, there’s nowhere to spend it and no way to send it out.”

Anakin considered it. No one had applied to the Jedi for help in searching for missing persons. Though... with a mining corporation owning the world...

_ It might extort exorbitant fees to leave, or to access hypercomm relays.  _

Might be the company’s only way of making a small amount of money off the planet they still owned.

_ Kark. _

The Expansionary Region was largely uncharted, and the Republic certainly didn’t have control over it. Whoever showed up with an army could lay claim and create paperwork, and without checking out each of the hundreds of thousands of claims filed per year...

No one would know.

Many were uninhabited.

Others had indigenous populations, or colonies established decades, or centuries prior.

“How many are down here now?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Maybe fifty, sixty-five including the guards.”

“Are the guards—?”

“His own people,” the human colonist confirmed. “They’re not from here.”

Fifty people.

On a planet this size, if Miger had targeted those not likely to be missed, it was entirely possible the planet had not yet discovered they had a problem.

_ And people are probably trying to leave daily, to get away from this planet for good. _

Must be rough, abandoning a place that had once been empty, that their grandparents had fought for and turned into something worth being called a home...

Anakin didn’t allow the sigh welling up within him to escape.

If he knew his master, this mission was taking yet another turn. One that spelled  _ rescue. _

Anakin applied himself to the map again, this time keeping track of the more out-of-the-way places too.

“What is he having you do? You said only  _ some  _ are on the billed jobs.”

“Collecting dokka eggs. He sends us out in shifts. I can’t tell you how many we’ve lost to dokka attacks. It’s horrible, watching a man burn.”

Anakin believed it.

Obi-Wan turned, scanning the room with his eyes, taking in the banks of computers. “What are the eggs being used for?”

“That I don’t know. They’re stored in unrefrigerated rooms, just stacks and stacks of them. They’re rotting— we can smell them in certain parts of the facility.”

_ Wait, what? _ Anakin looked back to Obi-Wan.

The older man didn’t seem to understand either. “Has anything else strange been happening?” he asked after a long pause.

“He’s having us feed rotten eggs to lusi he’s been keeping in cages. It makes them aggressive and crazy. They try to bite us through the wires.”

“What are lusi?”

“Small, long fur, long claws, jumping legs.”

Anakin made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “Yeah. Met them.”

“They don’t usually behave that way?” Obi-Wan clarified.

Arched eyebrows flew up higher in shock. “Oh, no. No. Even wild lusi are docile by nature. They use their claws to scrape the rocks in the caves— they feed off the minerals. They’re curious, shy, cautiously friendly. But the rotten dokka eggs make them go mad.”

“Are they poisonous?” Anakin asked, his gut tying into a knot.

“No. A bite or scratch hurts, but that’s it.”

“Why would Miger want to make them crazy?” Anakin demanded.

Their informant shrugged. “I don’t know. He doesn’t tell us anything.”

“You said he keeps them in cages?” Obi-Wan rubbed at his beard, looking even more worried than before.

“Some got out,” she admitted. “We were unable to recapture them. You’ll want to keep an eye out for them as you escape. They’re liable to cause some pretty uncomfortable scratches.”

The droll  _ oh, really?  _ look that crossed Obi-Wan’s face didn’t reassure Anakin like it usually did. It didn’t last long, either, before the grimness returned and Obi-Wan reached the  _ big  _ question. “What happened to the first Jedi?”

“She’s dead, that’s all I really know. Miger made us take her body out into the deep tunnels and leave it for the dokka to eat. I’m sorry,” she added hastily. “But those who try to resist orders... disappear. We don’t see them again. I was with the group who took her corpse. We couldn’t find any wounds— and I looked. I wanted to know what he’d done that could kill a Jedi. She seemed unhurt. I have no idea what happened.”

Anakin felt his anger begin to build. “When was this?”

“Just a week ago. Miger caught her, what? A month ago, at least.”

Anakin saw Obi-Wan shift.  _ Yeah... about the time she dropped off the radar. _

Enough time for a lot to happen.

They needed to get out.

Now.

“Any idea where they may have put our lightsabers?” Anakin asked, his jaw going stiff.

The woman moved to the console, pointed to the screen. “Miger kept the other Jedi’s weapon in the armory. Here. And his personal office is  _ here.  _ He almost never leaves it. In fact, I can think of only twice where he’s actually left it that I’ve seen. He has security cams all over, and can watch and then communicate through their speakers. There’s no real need for him to leave.”

Obi-Wan moved close to inspect the map, which allowed Anakin to spin around and grab Obi-Wan’s arm. His master started to pull away with a protest, but Anakin was too quick. He already had the slashed edges of the sleeve pulled away to reveal the sickly-colored cut.

“Ever seen anything like this before?” Anakin looked to their helper.

She shook her head. “No. That looks  _ bad. _ ”

Obi-Wan looked mildly tweaked. “Have any of your people been scratched or bitten by the crazed lusi— perhaps a month ago? Are they still alright?”

“Yes, they’re just fine. A few have had nasty tangles, but it all cleared up. Nothing looked like that.”

Obi-Wan pulled his arm out of Anakin’s possession. “I suggest we find our lightsabers, then pay our esteemed scientist a visit.”

“There’s a guard always at the door of the armory,” their new friend protested.

Anakin felt a smile tug at his lip. “Is there a ventilation shaft? We’re fond of them.”

Obi-Wan threw him a  _ look. _

“Perhaps. I don’t know, I’ve never been inside.”

“Well, let’s try it,” Obi-Wan agreed. “Are other traps than the ray shields and electricity?”

“I don’t  _ think  _ so, but maybe he’s kept something in reserve. And you’re not forgetting the  _ fifteen guards _ ? Are you a match for that?”

“Fifteen to two?” Obi-Wan asked, eyebrows raised and sounding optimistic. “Not all that bad.”

_ Force,  _ Anakin groaned,  _ we’re so fripped. _

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

Obi-Wan led the way this time, traveling through the ventilation system along the path their informant, Zaqira, had found for them.

While she hadn ’t the clearance to offer up the schematics of where the ray shields were located, she  _ did  _ have access to the air transportation tubes.

They found their lightsabers in the armory.

They also found Shazisa’s.

Anakin didn’t like the low-level mourning he could sense from the crystal within. He never felt comfortable in the face of a reminder that kyber crystals weren’t  _ just  _ rocks.

Moving quickly since their time was rapidly running out, they crawled through more shafts to as close to the door to Miger’s office as possible. From there, it wasn’t difficult to spot both the cams, and the ray mechanisms.

Anakin drew in a deep breath, felt his heart leap, and then they moved.

The instant their feet hit the floor, alarms went off.

Ignoring all else, the two Jedi raced out of reach of the ray, crossing the threshold just as the trap sprung.

Anakin smirked as he heard extra bolts within the door slide into place, Miger undoubtedly worried. The smirk vanished as a thin rayshield fizzed into place just above the surface of the door, keeping it safe from lightsaber damage.

_ We  _ are  _ going to get in,  _ Anakin determined.

This guy had caused them too much trouble.

And had killed Master Shazisa.

And had intended on killing them too.

And he somehow hurt Obi-Wan, who now looked unspeakably weary.

Oh, yes. They were getting in.

“You’re clever, Jedi. Very clever,” a voice admitted through the speaker built into the cam near the ceiling staring down at them.

“We would like to talk with you,” Obi-Wan returned.

_ I want to do more than talk. _

“My men are fleeing,” the voice continued, a bit sadly. “ _ Loose  _ Jedi was apparently too much to ask, and my workers are right behind them. Mass exit. A mob. Taking what they can carry.”

“Let us in,” Anakin growled.

The voice snapped to crazed. “If I don’t get out,  _ none of you do _ !”

_ Is this guy for real? _

“We have no intention of harming you,” Obi-Wan soothed.

“Ha! I know better. I killed your sister Jedi. Of course you mean to kill me!”

Obi-Wan looked a bit urgent, now. “It is not the Jedi way. If you surrender yourself to our care, no harm will come to you.”

“No!”  
“I give you my word.”

Anakin sensed terror and death explode into the Force. A lot of it.

“What have you done?” Obi-Wan barked, reaching out with the Force to try to deactivate the door’s shield.

Anakin reached as well, and found the mechanism first.

It was machinery, after all. Breaking it was simple.

“I won’t let you kill me!” raved the voice.

“We’re not  _ going  _ to kill you!” Obi-Wan yelled again, though it was probably a useless gesture.

Anakin pressed forward and plunged his saber into the blast door.

It took but a few moments for them to break through.

They surged into the room, then pulled up short.

“So this is him,” Anakin grimaced.

Doctor Miger lay sprawled across his desk, eyes open, a vial in his hand.

Obi-Wan seized it and read the label. “Thank the Force it’s not airborne, but he really only needed a drop, if he wanted to die. Swallowing the whole thing would have killed a  _ bantha _ .” 

Anakin shoved the body off the chair onto the floor and eyed the comp. Live security footage was playing, and Anakin recognized the corridor they’d entered the facility through.

It took a moment for the rest of it to register.

Obi-Wan’s head came up as he sensed Anakin’s distress. “What is it?” He moved to join his apprentice.

“He collapsed the entry.” Anakin shook his head in shock. “On top of the escaping people.”

Obi-Wan’s reflexive question of, “Survivors?” was the same as Anakin’s own.

Anakin closed his eyes to limit how much input reached his brain, and reached for the terror and pain he’d sensed just moments earlier. It took a long second to fully feel...

“No,” he breathed. “But maybe there’s others who weren’t running.” He flicked through the various security feeds, locating twenty individuals who seemed fairly confused about what they should be doing.

“The collapse looks too thick to burrow through,” Obi-Wan mused. “Is there any other way out of here, and if there isn’t, perhaps there’s mining equipment left that could get through it?”

It took a bit longer for Anakin to coax  _ that  _ information from the station. “If there is equipment, they’re not admitting to it. This area is riddled with dokka tunnels. There’s a couple of ways to get to tunnel mazes that haven’t been charted, but... who knows where they go.”

“Life support?”

Another few screens. “Knocked out.” Anakin felt tension building inside him. “It’s not going to run out if we’re in here for a few days, but I wouldn’t stay any longer.”

“Certainly not enough time for a Jedi rescue team to show up, if our communications are out. And given our luck—”

Anakin rolled his eyes. “He blew that up too.”

“Can you rig it?”

“Can I  _ rig  _ it?” Anakin stared at him, incredulous. “Master, it’s  _ gone _ .”

Obi-Wan blinked rapidly, as if trying to clear his vision, or perhaps brain fog. “Can you boost the signal from one of our links to get through?”

“That much rock above our heads? Not without an amplifier, no, and like I said, the amplifier is  _ destroyed. _ ”

“Alright,” Obi-Wan sighed. “So we’ll talk with those who remain, and find a way out. But, given the situation is fairly stable at the moment, I suggest we see if we can find out just  _ what  _ Miger did to Master Shazisa and what he intends to do with those lusi.”

Anakin nodded.

While Obi-Wan searched the room, Anakin tried to dig deeper on the comp.

After a little burrowing, Anakin managed to obtain the current map of the dokka tunnels. Given the coordinates and dates of the additions, Anakin decided this mining facility had been trying to find a way to connect with an aboveground base nearby. They’d been working the maps both directions, and had nearly filled in that last band of emptiness in the middle.

_And then they abandoned the planet._ _Couldn’t have stayed a few more days?_ he grumbled. “We can probably make it to the surface through the tunnels. The map’s not complete, but it’s probably our best shot.”

Certainly better than trying to dig out the other tunnel— or the Forcedamn  _ front door—  _ with shovels.

“Found a datapad,” Obi-Wan offered. “But it’s locked.”

“Try his date of birth.”

Obi-Wan scoffed a laugh. “I would if I knew it. Wait a minute...”

Anakin shuffled his map to the side, ready to download it to a smaller device to take with them, and kept searching.

Nearly a standard hour passed, but all Anakin could find were indications that the research he was after was stored on the datapad Obi-Wan was trying to crack. “Got it yet?”  
“No.” His master sounded frustrated. “But I think it’s pretty clear everything we need is here. Let’s take it back to the Temple. Surely the techies can get into it.”

_ Probably.  _ “Let’s go meet the survivors.”

 

* * *

 

Anakin felt pleasantly surprised to discover Zaqira had rounded up those still alive, and was in the process of trying to access the food and water stores.

A lightsaber helped with overriding the last security, but as the door slid open, spirits dropped.

Anakin had thought he disliked Miger enough. Apparently not.

Who put a  _ fire purge  _ system into their cold storage?

Anakin eyed broken glass canisters, and it made Miger’s work look even worse.

_ Well. Either he didn’t want his research stolen, or he was trying to kill something. _

“Each of us has a datapad,” Zaqira spoke up, already focusing on what they would need to attempt next. “I’ve checked, the most current map of the tunnels is on each one. I have two extra pads for the two of you, in case any of us get separated from the others.”

Anakin accepted one with a grim nod.

They managed to salvage some of the rations— ones not destroyed by heat and had been kept in metal cans— and there  _ was  _ a water supply area elsewhere. They explored the undamaged areas of the facility, rounding up whatever containers might be able to hold the water, and began to fill them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin saw Obi-Wan, Zaqira, and the man the survivors had voted to be their leader— Pherok— designing a rationing system as they estimated how long it might take to traverse the tunnels.

“This sigil means there  _ is  _ a surface breach here.” Zaqira pointed at the far end of the charted tunnels moving away from their position. “It’s too small for any of us to climb through, but we can widen it when we get there. Carrying an extra pick or two is a small price to pay to ensure we don’t have to try to find a connection between this map and the next.”

They decided the trek might take a week.

_ We can manage.  _

Even if they ran out of food early, as long as they had fluids, they could make it.

Anakin felt jittery as they set out, Pherok and Zaqira ahead, Obi-Wan waving everyone else ahead until last.

“You alright?” Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan managed a tight nod.

The shift from facility to natural dokka tunnel was abrupt, with the tunnel narrowing to the point where only two people could walk side-by-side. Zaqira held a glowrod above her head to see the path ahead and provide enough visibility to those behind.

_ It’ll be days before there’s any more light than just enough to make your eyes strain.  _ It left Anakin with a sour taste of dread in his mouth.

Dark with stars was one thing. Dark with  _ nothing _ ...

Not pleasant at all.

Fifteen minutes into their journey, something wrinkled Anakin’s nose.

“Gah.” The back of the padawan’s hand swiped up to cover his aching nose. “ _ What  _ is that smell?”  
Obi-Wan plodded along beside him, apparently unbothered by the stench. He threw his apprentice a glance that clearly said he wasn’t about to speculate.

The smell grew stronger as they continued. Anakin choked back a gag. Something had  _ died _ . 

A while ago.

A yelp from the people in front of them had Anakin and Obi-Wan pushing their way through the line to reach the subdued chaos.

Anakin was not prepared for what he saw at his feet. From the jolt and then sudden severe shielding of his master in the Force, Obi-Wan hadn’t been either.

Anakin couldn’t tear his gaze away, and felt horror and anger sweeping through him like a gathering storm.

Master Shazisa.

It had to be, though the body was mostly unrecognizable now. The decaying flesh was wrapped in a Jedi tunic. The dokka hadn’t found the corpse in the week it had been lying here, but the maggots had sure had. Anakin struggled with himself to look away from the squirming white worms moving in and out of her face, eyes that now weren’t really... eyes.

In the Force, he could sense the fear and horror she’d experienced in death. He could feel it had been  _ long. _

Obi-Wan moved forward and crouched down beside her, hesitantly reaching out a hand. He waited for half a beat, hand extended, before he stood again. His face looked drawn in the green shadows cast by the glowrod.

“Are you getting anything about how and why she died?” Obi-Wan murmured.

Anakin felt sure he would lose the nothing he currently held in his stomach. Obi-Wan wanted him to  _ try  _ to feel  _ more _ ? To open himself up to the horror?

Anakin’s stomach flipped over and churned. He wanted to run. Wanted to wash himself and never stop, wanted to fly something fast through danger and in the speed and peril forget this.

But Obi-Wan had tried. Had reached out to the past.

_ The least I can do is bear it with him. _

Anakin relaxed his mind and opened himself.

The impressions were vague.

Pain.  _ Lots  _ of pain. Fear. Dread. Confusion. Desperation.

More pain.

Death.

“It was slow,” he said at last, his voice not quite steady. The silent workers began to file past, continuing the journey and trying to give the Jedi a moment of privacy.

Obi-Wan gave a grim nod. “I got that too. Anything else?”  
Anakin shook his head, tears blinding his eyes. He forced them back. “Pain. A lot of it.” He would  _ not  _ let the tears fall.

Obi-Wan’s gaze snapped to his face, but instead of disapproval for Anakin’s struggle with emotion— which Anakin knew his master could see even if the others present wouldn’t be able to tell through his mask— he read sympathy and comradery in the misery from the older Jedi.

This had traumatized Obi-Wan too. Deeply. And was continuing to do so.

“I still can’t tell _ what  _ happened.”

Obi-Wan’s shoulders slumped. “I couldn’t tell anything from her body about the status of her health. It’s been too long.”

Anakin heard someone retching ahead and could hardly blame them.

“Zaqira?” Obi-Wan turned to the one being who hadn’t edged away with fabric drawn over their noses. “Is it possible to light a fire in here? Are the tunnels ventilated enough for it to be safe?”

She shook her head, forehead lined with sympathy. “No. And even if it  _ were,  _ fire would attract dokka from all directions. We’d likely run into them. And the moss scattered around the tunnels is flammable. It burns hot and long, and might run across the ceilings or floors.” 

“I understand,” Obi-Wan murmured. “Let’s go.”

Anakin stared at him in shock. “We can’t just leave her here.”

“What is there for us to do, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked, eyes sad. “The stone floor won’t allow for burying, and there isn’t enough loose rock to build a cairn. We cannot take the body with us— it would be just asking for disease or a dokka attack.”

Anakin stared at him at a loss for word. It was true, but it felt so  _ wrong. _ Didn’t it  _ bother  _ Obi-Wan?

Anakin searched his master’s face, eyes, and Force signature.

It  _ did  _ bother Obi-Wan. A lot.

A woman had died here alone and afraid, and they couldn’t even treat her corpse with dignity.

In the face of uncaring facts, there was nothing Obi-Wan could do about it, so he would bear it and go on.

Anakin gave a small nod to let him know he’d been heard.

The smell of the putrefying carcass faded as they traveled, but Anakin felt like his lungs were coated with Shazisa’s blood and liquefying flesh. He’d only rarely ever felt so violated.

Anakin had once believed Jedi could not be killed.

He wished they would stop this desperate dedication to proving that childhood belief wrong.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

Two hours of walking later, the group found themselves huddled on the edge of a dropoff.

Anakin worked his way to the front and stared at the hole in the floor, annoyed. He’d understood in theory that the tunnels had been carved by dokka, but the idea that they might _keep_ tunneling hadn’t crossed his mind.

But there it went, burrowing down into utter blackness at an angle far too steep to attempt, even if they had _wanted_ to go _down._

He looked to the other side. It was much too far for those not Force-enhanced.

_Okay._

He leaped across, mildly pleased by the gasps and murmurs it instilled. He slung his pack to the ground, turned, and eyed the twenty refugees.

“One at a time, you’re going to jump when I say. Jump as far as you can, and I’ll carry you across the rest of the way.”

People stared back at him in disbelief.

Obi-Wan looked exhausted. “Would you rather return to the facility?”

After a long, painful moment, Pherok stepped forward.

“Jump,” Anakin directed, hands out.

The man took two running steps and leaped. Anakin could read the terror in his eyes, swirling around him in the Force, a cloying, awful thing.

And completely unnecessary, as the arc of his leap began to curve down and he saw he wasn’t going to make it. Anakin simply seized him in the Force and changed his trajectory until he stood on his feet, safe and sound on the other side.

Pherok nearly doubled over, hands planted on his thighs, shuddering.

“I got you,” Anakin explained, and the man managed a breathless— but still distressed— nod.

_Next one shouldn’t be as worried, since they know I can do it now._

That turned out _not_ to be the case.

In fact, with only three people left on the wrong side of the tunnel, Anakin could smell the acrid scent that said someone had been terrified enough to wet their pants.

He almost felt bad for whoever that was, knowing it would be a long way before they had a chance to clean up.

Obi-Wan and Zaqira had their full attention on the person between them, who had his feet firmly dug in and was nearly in tears, he was so terrified.

They were trying to _convince_ him to jump, but the whole thing was simply traumatizing the poor man even more.

“Do you want to stay here _alone_ ?” Obi-Wan was asking, and it was so patently obvious the guy _couldn’t_ handle the thought, he was so scared, but he couldn’t seem to force himself to move forward, either.

Anakin had a solution.

He simply seized the man through the Force and dragged him forward, ignoring the man’s shrieks of absolute terror as his feet scrabbled against the floor and then _nothing_ as he was drawn across the chasm.

Obi-Wan sent Anakin a wide-eyed, almost horrified look.

_What?_ Anakin thought, glaring as he set the panicked being well away from the edge, ignoring the people who tried to comfort the unraveling creature. _I saved his life, and I shortened his suffering._

Obi-Wan could have stood there and tried to cajole him for an hour, and the guy _still_ would have had to get across.

_I just got it over with, and now he can recover._

Zaqira took a steadying breath, and Obi-Wan placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder before stepping out of the way.

When the woman looked back up at Anakin, he saw something in her eyes he hadn’t seen in the others.

While she clearly didn’t _like_ being trapped so far beneath the surface of her homeworld, and didn’t _like_ the struggle to survive being made _more_ difficult than it needed to be...

There was a fire in her that drew Anakin’s curiosity.

She raced for the edge and flung herself off, and though Anakin felt himself tiring, he wasn’t in any danger of actually _dropping_ her.

She landed beside him, an eyebrow arched, clearly more focused on the sensation of having experienced the Force for herself than on the _almost died_ aspect of it.

_Wonder if she believed in the Force before now._

Obi-Wan moved back, then ran for the edge and leaped. It was something Anakin had seen him do countless times, something that required negligible effort.

And then, to Anakin’s shock, he saw Obi-Wan’s eyes widen, saw he wasn’t going to _make_ it.

_Holy—!_ Anakin lashed out with the Force, shock and alarm driving the weariness from him as he caught his master and hauled him to safety. Anakin grabbed his arm and steadied him, since Obi-Wan seemed just a little unsteady on his feet.

“What _was_ that?” Anakin hissed, his pulse thundering.

Obi-Wan managed a wan smile. “Thank you.”

“Yeah. Of course. But—”

Anakin could read the shock Obi-Wan also felt.

_He doesn’t know why, so there’s no use demanding._ Anakin’s grip on his arm tightened for a moment, then fell away.

_I need to pay more attention._

Zaqira was watching them with concern, but she didn’t demand any answers.

Yet.

The others simply seemed to accept that what had just happened was normal— it had been done with _them,_ after all— and headed on down the tunnel.

_We can do this. We always manage._

_We get out of here, and I’ll be one step closer to knighthood, and once I’m knighted, I can go visit mom._

Some conversation murmured through the group as hours more of walking dragged on, but it lessened ever more as the reality of the situation sank home.

_We’ll be walking in the dark for_ days.

Anakin kept close to Obi-Wan, trying to keep tabs on how he was doing via _very_ poor sight, and the Force’s confusing whispers.

Obi-Wan seemed to sink into a state where instead of thinking, he simply put one foot in front of the other, expression drawn, quiet, patient.

_Because he can’t give more than that, right now?_

The thought alarmed Anakin.

 

* * *

 

They reached the large pool of water marked on the map. Anakin wasn’t sure he wanted to go so far as to call it a lake, but with the glowrod held aloft, they couldn’t see how far it extended to the side. The tunnel had opened up into a much larger area, and the water filled all of it that Anakin could see, the tunnel they wanted to continue with leading up from directly across.

Zaqira toed a raft, but it took Anakin only a moment to recognize the hole rotted through the middle. A _big_ one.

“It’s best to guess it’s deep,” Pherok spoke up. “And we have no idea if it has currents beneath the surface.”

“It’s a _pond,_ ” someone said.

Zaqira’s head came up. “We don’t actually _know_ that.”

Anakin felt his skin crawl, and backpedaled from the water’s edge.

“What is it?” Obi-Wan asked, concerned.

“I’m sensing something. I think it’s in the water.”

Obi-Wan looked surprised, then turned to peer at the liquid that looked nearly black, with a sickly green cast from the glowrod. “Alright,” he murmured at last, “we’ll try not to disturb it, then. Perhaps the ledge around the side is wide enough to inch along.”

“Can you sense it, Master?”  
Obi-Wan didn’t reply for a long moment as he moved to the one wall of the cavern that they could easily locate, and then, when Anakin didn’t look away, he shook his head.

_You can’t sense that far?_

Did they mean they were reliant on only Anakin’s danger sense now?

While Anakin certainly didn’t need help for that, what did it mean for setting up camp later? _Can Obi-Wan take a watch? And..._

Should he?

“Alright,” Pherok ordered, voice quiet. “Single file, stick to the wall, try not to make the fishes curious.”

They’d made it halfway around when Obi-Wan, who Anakin had made sure to have walk in front of him, tripped and fell, landing on his hands and knees in the shallow water.

“Oh,” Obi-Wan breathed, sounding shaken. “There _is_ a dropoff. I can feel it with my hands.”

Anakin froze. “You have something stable under your palms?”

“Yes, but it falls away beneath my fingers. Careful, everyone. It could be deep.”

Dread settled over the party, and someone mumbled, “I can’t swim.”

_Great. So I might also be fishing people out of the water with the Force._

Ah, well. As Obi-Wan often said, things could always be _worse._

Something shifted in the Force, deep and out _there—_

“Kark,” Anakin choked. “Something’s coming.”

Panic broke out, the people ahead moving as fast as they could along the ledge, scrambling for the other side.

Anakin ignored it all, reaching out, sensing malice. _Oh, Force—_

Blaster bolts lit the cavern, and Anakin saw a fin breaking through the water, speeding for them. The beams that hit did nothing to slow it down, and Anakin sensed no pain in the Force.

Desperate, knowing it would _definitely_ reach them before he could get Obi-Wan to shore, Anakin let go of attention for _anything_ else and simply zeroed in on the mind of the creature, pouring all his will into the _animal friendship_ skill.

After two moments, he realized it wasn’t working.

Cursing loud and bitterly that he could only Friend _easy_ creatures, he reached down to haul Obi-Wan to his feet only to see Obi-Wan’s eyes closed, his hand outstretched.

Anakin hesitated to distract him, given Obi-Wan’s less than solid strength—

The creature hesitated, slowed—

Anakin looked over to find a few of the people frozen on the ledge, Zaqira right in front of Obi-Wan, refusing to move without the feeble Jedi too.

“Go!” Anakin hissed. “And don’t stop on the bank, get farther up!”

Who knew if their guest had _feet_ to pursue them with.

The feet of the refugees pattered as they scrabbled, some of the steps slipping into the water, turning the already-aggressive creature agitated.

Obi-Wan trembled as he fought to keep the connection between himself and their pursuer open.

Anakin drew his saber, hoping it wouldn’t move too fast, wouldn't—

The civilians, excepting Zaqira, were safe. She still hadn’t abandoned them.

_Stupid,_ part of Anakin inwardly growled. _Brave,_ was his other thought, much less grumpy.

“Get him on his feet,” he directed, since if the woman wasn’t going to flee, maybe she could help. “No sudden moves, don’t distract him.” Anakin gripped his saber tight, eyeing the thing that was trying to break free.

Zaqira eased Obi-Wan to his feet, and guided those feet, step after step, agonizingly slow—

Obi-Wan wouldn’t be walking at all except Zaqira drew him with gentle insistence.

Nothing in Obi-Wan was left _for_ thinking, for calculating, _everything_ was taken up by just keeping their pursuer at bay.

It was painful, to flee so slowly, clawing at Anakin’s ringing nerves, plucking at his resolve.

He wanted to throw his saber at the thing, see if he could carve wounds into it, but that would almost definitely break Obi-Wan’s concentration.

_And if I didn’t do enough damage that first attack..._

It might be upon them before a second was possible. Anakin wasn’t at all sure Obi-Wan would be able to back him up in a fight right now.

And wasn’t _that_ a bizarre and frightening thought that left him feeling bereft.

As soon as they reached the far edge, Anakin took one of Obi-Wan’s arms, and Zaqira caught the other arm, and the two launched into a _run_ up the tunnel.

Obi-Wan gasped in surprise, but his feet followed, and none of them risked a glance behind as they heard a splash and a hiss, adrenaline fueling their flight.

Around the bend they found the rest of their party, wide-eyed and alarmed.

Pherok pushed his way back to them. “There’s a place not far ahead that I think we could make camp.”  
“Good.” Anakin eyed the now-silent descent to the pool. “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

Pherok was right. The dead-ended alcove would make keeping watch simple, and it had both a pretty good line of sight for where they were heading and where they had come from.

Anakin slung his pack to the ground and simply stared at it. Anger churned in his gut.

Miger had brutally murdered one of the Jedi’s own... and not only was there nothing they could do about it, and no way to punish the scientist for his atrocity...

_But we couldn_ _’t even pay our respects to Master Shazisa’s body._

They’d left her there like an animal. It felt so _wrong,_ even while Anakin knew they hadn’t had a choice.

“Are you alright?” Obi-Wan murmured, unburdening himself of his own pack.

Anakin glanced at him. “I will be, once we get out of here.”

Obi-Wan nodded, probably understanding his discomfort.

Pherok assigned watches, and to Anakin’s relief, neither Jedi were chosen. Anakin felt drained, and Obi-Wan looked worse.

_We both need to recharge._

As Anakin rolled himself in his cloak and lay down on the hard stone, the pack beneath his head, he felt the cold threatening to seep up into his pores, and the close atmosphere oppressed him.

He found he dreaded the morning.

 

~ ~ ~

 

Anakin could see Shazisa lying limp on the unforgiving stone.

Only this time, something _had_ found her body. It looked like a massiff’s chew-toy. Anakin’s feet took him closer, though he fought desperately against it. He didn’t want to see. Didn’t want to feel. Didn’t want to know.

He’d been through enough already.

As he was drawn closer, something seemed wrong about the corpse. Something was off, didn’t make sense.

It took several moments for him to realize it wasn’t Shazisa.

And then suspicion hit him, vicious and burning.

It was Obi-Wan.

_No, it isn’t_ , he swore to himself, desperate. _It’s not._

He sprang closer, filled with a terrible need to prove to himself it was a mistake.

Only it wasn’t.

Obi-Wan’s mouth hung open, his head tipped back, blank eyes staring. His long hair lay scattered on the stone, streaked red and brown. Maggots squirmed underneath and through the near-translucent skin, up his throat, through his eyes... his heart. An arm had been ripped away, and teeth marks slashed his side. His stomach had been ripped open and his entrails dragged away and devoured. It hadn’t been a clean feed, and bits were still strewn, some still attached to him, stretched over a bit less than a meter.

Anakin felt all he’d felt with Shazisa, but more.

Betrayal. Here he sensed betrayal.

His own.

He fell to his knees, choking on the stench. It was so thick he could _taste_ the foulness of the air. His gut rolled over, but nothing came up.

_What have I done?_

 

~ ~ ~

 

Anakin jolted awake, gasping in air. Sitting up, he scanned his surroundings, heart still pounding.

Most of the survivors lay sound asleep. The two men on watch had been joined by a couple more, but that was it.

Obi-Wan lay near, his face twisted in discomfort. Every few moments he flinched, though whether from pain or a nightmare, Anakin couldn’t tell.

It took two tries before he succeeded in waking his master up.

Obi-Wan peered up at him, confused and groggy. “What? What is it?”

“Are you alright?” Anakin asked, forcing his voice to be steady. He still felt shaken, and almost close to tears, though the _why_ of it eluded and bewildered him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Obi-Wan sat up and pressed a palm to one eye socket.

_Because I’ve dreamed of you dying. Twice. And it’s... horribly visceral._ “How are you feeling?” Anakin asked instead.

“I’ve felt better.”

_Please be alright. You have to be._ “Let me see the cut.” His fingers worked swift to pull away the tunic, and he turned Obi-Wan’s arm so the glowrod’s light could fall on it.

Obi-Wan didn’t protest, instead inspecting it with his gaze too.

It had scabbed over and didn’t look infected.

“Do you sense any sickness or parasite or anything now?”

Obi-Wan’s shoulders sagged. “Still a no. What time is it?”  
“A couple hours before we move out again.”

The Jedi Knight considered it for a moment, then shuffled backwards to rest his back against the wall, and drew Miger’s datapad from his pack. “Might as well work on this, then.”

“If you think you can guess his password,” Anakin replied, trying to hide his doubt and feeling it seep into his tone anyway.

Obi-Wan huffed a dry chuckle. “Your faith in me carries me through, my padawan.”

_It had better._

Or his shoulders might have to take that weight instead.

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

Anakin was about ready to tear his hair out, even with the added challenge of it being so short.

He stared at the tumbled boulders in silent frustration.

“This is recent,” Zaqira asserted, holding the glowrod close. “I’d say sparked by the ground tremors when Miger detonated the escapeways.”

Anakin clambered up what he could, peering deeper in.

“Jedi Skywalker, can you move the rubble?” Pherok asked.

Anakin grimaced. “I think it would just bring down more on top. There’s nothing holding the ceiling up anymore.”

“The last tunnel branching off was  _ hours  _ ago,” gasped someone from behind.

_ Yeah. Half a morning, and by the time we get to another tunnel, it’ll be time to stop to eat lunch. _

“Better exhausted than dead,” Pherok decided, turning everyone around and heading back down the way they’d come.

A look of pure exhaustion and despair crossed Obi-Wan’s face for a moment, just a brief flicker before being locked away behind determination once more.

Anakin walked beside him, feeling awful that each step Obi-Wan took cost him so much effort.

_ Please don’t let the next passage we try be pointless too _ , Anakin thought in the general vicinity of the Force. He didn’t think the Force answered hopes like that, but he was too tired himself to care.

He would do whatever it took to get Obi-Wan out of here.

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan didn’t quite finish his rationed portion at lunch, sitting at the crossroads between the tunnel they’d traveled  _ twice  _ and another one.

“Hey,” Anakin murmured, catching his master’s attention. “It’s okay. You should finish.”

A wan smile met Anakin’s, resigned and grim. “I find I’m not hungry, Anakin. You may as well have it. You require more food than I.”

Which was generally true, and Anakin’s stomach grumbled at him to take Obi-Wan’s word for it...

_ But I’m still hungry, and I think his body is, even if he doesn’t feel it now. He’ll need this later. _

So instead, Anakin smuggled the remains back into his pack when Obi-Wan’s attention was again snared by the empty blackness lying ahead.

Walking through new stretches of dark tunnel felt about the same as before, except this time, Anakin felt braced against the possibility of  _ it  _ dead ending too.

He wasn’t at all sure how he would take such a setback.

Maybe let out some words Obi-Wan didn’t know he knew.

One wall of the tunnel opened up, falling away into nothingness as their path turned into a ledge. Somewhere deep beneath, Anakin could hear the rush of water.

_ Yuck. _

He switched sides with Obi-Wan, placing himself between the dropoff and his master, and guiding Obi-Wan closer to the one remaining wall. Obi-Wan complied, not reacting at all to being herded.

Anakin was so focused on keeping away from the cliff on the left, that he didn’t recognize the moment when the wall to the right fell away as well.

First he heard of it was Obi-Wan’s gasp, scrabbling feet—

He spun, found Zaqira gripping Obi-Wan tight, her eyes wide and her jaw clenched, Obi-Wan’s eyes even wider and shot all through with fear. An oath escaped Anakin, and he grabbed Obi-Wan’s arm, helping stabilize them.

Anakin closed his eyes for a moment, willing his panicking heartbeat to slow.

“Okay.” Anakin breathed out, then linked his arm through Obi-Wan’s. “Obi-Wan, the wall is gone.”

“I realized that, when it wasn’t there to lean on anymore.” He sounded shaken.

“Yeah. Zaqira, can you—?”

She moved a bit, fisted her hand in the back of Obi-Wan’s tunic, and braced.

Obi-Wan looked a bit surprised and uncomfortable, but Anakin didn’t really care.

“Listen to me,” Anakin directed. “You hold on tight, Obi-Wan. You just focus on putting one foot in front of the other, and please, for Force’s sake, check and make sure there’s somewhere to put your foot, or you’re going to take all  _ three  _ of us down.”

Obi-Wan swallowed hard, let out a shuddering breath, and nodded.

“Okay.” Anakin took just a moment, then moved them forward. It was an uncomfortable, shuffling walk, but with nothing to catch them in either direction, the slower speed seemed justifiable.

_ We can do this.  _

_ We  _ can _ do this. _

They continued on for what felt like a lifetime, and Anakin didn’t dare distract himself with wondering how far they had to travel this way, how long it would be. He could sense that Zaqira’s eyes ached from watching the edge so carefully, her fingers ached from clenching so tight, but she showed no outward sign of wearying.

Anakin felt grateful,  _ so grateful  _ she was alert and aware.

Somewhere in the middle of a lifetime of inching along, Obi-Wan murmured an uneasy, “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Zaqira replied before Anakin had the chance. “We  _ all  _ get out of here.”

A murmur came back along the chain of people, a rumor from ahead.

The path widened out a bit, up there, and Pherok had decided to quit for the night, get some sleep.

Anakin didn’t dare look at his chrono to see if it were really time for that or not. His body needed the rest, the work of making sure Obi-Wan had stable footing each step of the way was exhausting.

_ And maybe we really have been creeping along for just that long. _

It was an awful thought, but one growing ever more easy to believe.

 

* * *

 

Anakin and Zaqira both requested watches that night.

Anakin took the first one, sitting on one side of Obi-Wan, making sure he didn’t roll over, or sleepwalk, or some other unexpected  _ thing  _ that might send him over the edge. Zaqira lay asleep on Obi-Wan’s other side, presumably for the same purpose. Anakin didn’t know why she’d chosen to protect his weakened master, but whatever it was motivating her, he thanked the Force for it.

The more eyes looking out for Obi-Wan down here, the better.

 

~ ~ ~

 

The Temple burned.

Men with no faces marched through, shooting people, shooting  _ everyone _ , but Anakin couldn’t fight. He had to  _ find  _ Obi-Wan, had to—

He couldn’t find him.

Couldn’t  _ find— _

 

~ ~ ~

 

It was Obi-Wan who woke him up. Anakin opened his eyes to find Obi-Wan staring into them, Obi-Wan’s hand on Anakin’s elbow.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan whispered. “Are you alright?”  
“Messed-up dreams,” Anakin rasped in return.

Obi-Wan frowned in concern. “Premonitions, or dreams?”

“I don’t get premonitions, Obi-Wan. You’re the one so strong in the Cosmic Force.”

Obi-Wan smiled, the expression fond and tired. “You sell yourself short, Anakin. I’ve never met an individual strong in  _ both  _ sides of the Force, the Cosmic and the Living, except for you.”

“Dabble in everything, good at none of it?”  
“That’s not what I said.” Obi-Wan’s forehead furrowed. “You are very strong in both.”

Anakin sighed. “Because I’m supposed to balance them, right?”

“Hey.” Obi-Wan ’s thumb stroked against Anakin’s elbow. “Maybe, maybe not. The Force can probably fix itself.”

_ Master Qui-Gon thought it  _ is.  _ It would explain why my DNA, though fully human, is  _ only  _ Mom’s. Genetics doesn’t work like that, Obi-Wan. Humans don’t spontaneously clone themselves. _

Anakin couldn’t begin to imagine how weird and scary it must have been, to just suddenly be  _ pregnant,  _ with no explanation, without assurance that the creature growing was even human.

“Anakin, it’s just a prophecy. It might not even mean you. And even if it does, the Force will guide you, when you quiet your heart and listen past your fear. It will be alright.”

“Yeah.” Anakin nodded, trying to dismiss his unease. “No, I don’t believe in superstitions, anyway. I’m just  _ really  _ talented.”

Obi-Wan leveled him a  _ look _ and quiet scoff. “And here I am, trying to bolster the self esteem of one who is profoundly self-assured.”

“You  _ know  _ I’ll turn out to be the best,” Anakin retorted, still in a whisper.

Obi-Wan’s expression turned fond again, and so very, very sober. “I know you can accomplish anything, if you set your mind to it.”

Anakin wasn’t quite certain if it was actually a compliment. Obi-Wan clearly meant it as one, but Anakin couldn’t help but feel like there was a rebuke hidden in there. There always was, after all, even if not at first apparent.

Palpatine was pretty good at finding Obi-Wan’s hidden mockery.

Anakin’s expression fell.

No.

It wasn’t right for Obi-Wan to make fun of him, just because Anakin wasn’t smart enough to always catch it, when Obi-Wan’s words sounded pretty and his Force-presence seemed warm and genuine.

He almost wanted to challenge his master, but Obi-Wan’s eyes were closed again from exhaustion, and his presence hovered on the edge of sleep.

So Anakin held his tongue, hoping Obi-Wan could regain some strength, at least, in the couple hours left before “dawn.”

 

* * *

 

There were more ledges.

Anakin thought he might be losing his  _ mind. _

After that first round, he didn’t necessarily feel safe just by putting Obi-Wan against the wall.

So instead, Zaqira went just a little bit ahead of the two Jedi, making sure the wall remained and was sturdy, tapping at it with the handle of one of the pickaxes every little ways, just to be sure, and then Anakin came after, with Obi-Wan plodding, slow and laborious, at his side.

They were falling behind, the three of them, and that wasn’t something Anakin felt particularly comfortable about.

They kept protesting, the column kept slowing, but as the day continued, footsteps moved quicker, wanting to be  _ out,  _ needing to get  _ out. _

Anakin understood that heart-stifling need.

He hated this third day trapped underground as much as the rest.

The roaring of water alerted Anakin long before the giant fall came into view.

Zaqira held up a glowstick, peering up, trying to see where it started, while Anakin looked the  _ other  _ direction, wondering how far down it went.

“Master Kenobi,” Zaqira murmured, tapping on his shoulder, rousing him from his near-stupor. “Look. It’s beautiful.”

_ I guess. _ Anakin didn’t appreciate the way the spray hit his face, or the way it dampened their ledge as they inched closer. They would walk right past the surging water, close enough to reach out a hand to touch, and then it looked like they’d be heading back into a legitimate tunnel beside the fall.

At least they had a wall to their right at the moment, something to crowd Obi-Wan up against in case he slipped.

“It’s magnificent,” Obi-Wan murmured, a faint, pure smile touching his face.

_ Okay, okay. Pretty waterfall. Let’s go, huh? _

They passed into the close, confining tunnel once more, and Anakin shivered in relief. Obi-Wan placed a hand on his arm, and Anakin at first thought it was a gesture of sympathy, but then he saw Obi-Wan ’s head lolling forward.

_ He needs us to stop. _

Anakin sent an alarmed look ahead to where the next glow-stick was quite a ways away.

The fall’s mist had left their robes damp, and Anakin tried to wrestle down concern of what might happen if Obi-Wan ended up chilled.

_ I can’t have him _ sick _ too, on top of whatever this already is. _

“Alright,” Obi-Wan rasped. “Let’s go.”

“You sure that’s enough?” Zaqira asked, sounding unconvinced. “We can rest a bit longer.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “No. We have to go.”

 

* * *

 

They caught up to the group when those ahead nearly stormed into a dokka nest filled with eggs. It resulted in backing out,  _ very  _ slowly, the shock and fear ringing in the Force ahead.

Who knew the  _ right  _ curve around a pillar-like stone was  _ lethal,  _ and the  _ left  _ was clear?

Next time they ran into an obstruction they couldn’t see around, though, much more caution came into play.

When the tunnel widened into a larger chamber again, Anakin could sense Zaqira tensing up, waiting for another  _ water  _ trouble.

All went well until they had traveled about half-way through.

That’s when Anakin began to feel the vibrations beneath his feet, and sensing his footsteps shivering through fragile stone up to jostle the ceiling.

_ Oh, frip. _

“Close up!” he called, just as an audible  _ crack  _ made even Anakin, who’d been expecting it, jump.

Bodies stumbled to gather around him as he threw his hands up, and in the periphery of his vision, he saw Obi-Wan’s hands mirror the gesture.

The massive blocks of ceiling pressed down, and Anakin grit his teeth, trying to shove them over.

“The ceiling ahead looks just as fragile,” Zaqira reported.

Anakin nodded. “We’ll move forward slow.”

In the back of his mind, he heard Zaqira giving directions, but all Anakin could do was take several cautious steps forward, and then catch more stone as it fell.

Obi-Wan’s assistance helped, but half-way across, it gave out.

Anakin saw Zaqira sling Obi-Wan’s arm over her shoulder, saw her all but supporting Obi-Wan’s weight.

There was so much  _ more  _ stone this time, and he couldn’t just shove it all aside, because more was  _ falling,  _ so he had to both hold up  _ and  _ push out without letting anything  _ through— _

He grit his teeth, thought he groaned—

He couldn’t do this, it was so  _ very  _ far beyond his strength, he couldn’t—

“Anakin, breathe,” a voice whispered. The voice of his master. “You  _can._ You have this strength; I believe it.”

Anakin grit his teeth. Precision and massive weight-shifting didn ’t  _ mesh  _ well, he could hold up the damn ceiling  _ or  _ divert boulders, but not both—

“You can.”

_If he’s wrong, he dies._

So Obi-Wan had to be  _ right. _

Anakin clenched his eyes shut, gave up every thought and attention to anything else, and might have screamed as he demanded two things from the Force at once. Stone exploded outwards, away from the refugees, and more ceiling collapsed in.

Anakin could sense a honeycomb of fragile stone above, and as each support gave out, more collapsed in.

He caught it all, shuffled it off to the sides where it hit with sickening thuds, and sometimes punched clear through the floor.

People huddled around him, scared spitless, clinging to one another, but not to him.

Only Obi-Wan’s hand touched him, resting against his shoulder, a beacon and a source of strength.

_ I can. _

Anakin breathed once nothing more fell down on them, and for a long moment he held still, braced, trembling, waiting for more—

But all was silence, in the dust-choked air around.

“Walk softly,” Zaqira directed, voice low. “And stay close.”

Anakin took a step, nearly tumbled as his knee buckled.

_ Oh. _

_ I— _

“Little bit farther,” Obi-Wan whispered, trying to help  _ Anakin  _ along, the ridiculous man concerned about  _ Anakin— _

They reached the other side, but didn’t keep going.

Anakin thought he heard Zaqira interceding to Pherok that Anakin couldn’t go farther tonight.

_ Absurd. _

He’d just saved their skins, hadn’t he?

Except he was sitting on his ass, and he wasn’t sure when he’d ended up there, and Obi-Wan lay beside him, and Anakin’s head spun, and he just couldn’t quite keep his body from teetering over.

Warm hands caught him, kept him from smashing the back of his head against the stone.

He saw Zaqira’s face for a moment, swimming above his.

“Sleep,” she urged.

Cold fingers brushed against Anakin’s arm, and though he couldn’t turn his head, he could sense Obi-Wan there, right there, wanting to help Anakin recover from his Force-exhaustion.

_You can’t. Not right now. I’ll be fine... after sleep..._

The finger rubbed against his wrist, Anakin doubted Obi-Wan could do more than give that small gesture.

_How in hell’s name are we going to get out of here?_

 

 


End file.
